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唐 Tang · 词 Ci lyric

望江南·梳洗罢

Watching the South: After Tying My Hair

温庭筠

Wen Tingyun

唐Theme 温庭筠Theme 望江南Theme 闺怨Theme 词Theme

梳洗罢，独倚望江楼。
过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠。
肠断白蘋洲。

Listen

Meaning

A woman waits by a riverside tower for her lover's return; as every boat passes and fails, her hope dissolves into the long, silent water.

梳洗已毕，独自倚在望江楼头。成千的帆过去了都不是他，斜阳脉脉江水悠悠。望断白蘋洲上，柔肠寸断。

Appreciation

As one of Wen Tingyun's most celebrated 'waiting woman' (guiyuan) lyrics and a cornerstone of the ornate Huajian school of ci, 'Watching the South: After Tying My Hair' distills a whole drama of expectation and disappointment into just twenty-seven characters. Its artistry lies in temporal compression: the poem holds a single fixed vantage—the river-watching tower—and lets the day unfold within it, so that the 'thousand sails' sweeping past become a measure of endless, silent waiting rather than mere incident. The brisk opening 'Her toilette done' gives way to a static, aching vigil, mirroring a mind moving from hope toward resignation. Wen personifies the slanting sun and the flowing water as tender yet indifferent witnesses (maimai, youyou), binding inner feeling to outer scene without a single abstract word of sorrow. The closing 'Her heart breaks at the isle of white duckweed' lands like one final brushstroke after long stillness. Economical, imagistic, and emotionally restrained, the lyric set a template for the Southern Tang and Song ci treatment of feminine longing, prized precisely for saying much by showing little.

【白话串讲】 “梳洗罢，独倚望江楼”——温庭筠写望江南：她梳洗完毕，独自倚在望江楼上。“过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠”——千帆过尽，都不是她的丈夫。“肠断白蘋洲”——她望断了肠。一首最短的思念词。【意象与手法】起句“梳洗罢，独倚望江楼”以日常动作写盼归之急切；“过尽千帆皆不是”于重复的等待中层层加码失望；结以“斜晖脉脉水悠悠”“肠断白蘋洲”以景语收情语。仅二十七字，尺幅万里。【情感与主旨】闺怨小令的代表，“过尽千帆皆不是”是千年写“望归”最警策的一笔，将女子的痴望与失落融于江天暮色。开后世“望江南”闺情一体，为花间词“密丽含蓄”风格的典范。【名句点睛】常考“过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠”以千帆皆不是写等待失落；“肠断白蘋洲”以白蘋洲写望断愁肠。

Background

A quintessential 'waiting woman' (闺怨) lyric by Wen Tingyun, founder of the ornate Huajian school of ci poetry.

此词为温庭筠闺怨小令的代表，约作于晚唐，后收入《花间集》。温庭筠，花间词派鼻祖，以秾丽绵密之笔写闺情，此词却以疏淡胜，仅二十七字而尺幅万里。《望江南》本名《忆江南》，乃白居易依隋代乐曲改制的小令，单调二十七字，三平韵，最宜短章抒情；温庭筠以此调写思妇盼归，是花间词人借短调写长情的一例。唐五代之际，词初由燕乐小令转入文人案头，闺怨、相思本就是民间词与文人词共同的核心题材；而思妇登楼望归，自《诗经·伯兮》其雨其雨、杲杲出日，到乐府《饮马长城窟行》青青河畔草，再到唐人闺怨诗，早已是古典诗歌最恒久的母题之一。温庭筠此词之妙，在于把这一母题压缩进二十七个字里：梳洗、倚楼、千帆、斜晖、白蘋洲，无一字写愁，却处处是愁。读此词，须把它放回花间词由乐入文的转折里，理解温庭筠如何以最省的笔墨，写最无尽的一种等待，以及那份自汉代以来中国女性共有的、望断江天的痴，短短小令原是千年母题的一声回响。

Art

Extreme economy — a single fixed scene observed across time; the 'thousand sails' condense endless waiting into one image. 脉脉 (tender gaze) and 悠悠 (endless) personify sun and water as silent witnesses.

起句梳洗罢，独倚望江楼，以日常动作写盼归之急切——梳洗方毕便去倚楼，可见望归之心早已胜过一切梳妆的从容；独字最重，写尽无人相伴、唯有江天与己的孤。过尽千帆皆不是，于重复的等待中层层加码失望，是千年来写望归最警策的一笔：帆过千百，希望升起又落下，皆不是他，把等待的折磨写得如慢刀割心；斜晖脉脉水悠悠，以斜阳无言、江水长流收束上景，脉脉写夕光依依，悠悠写水流无尽，景语中皆是痴望与失落。结以肠断白蘋洲，白蘋洲本为分别之地，望断于此，柔肠寸断。全词仅二十七字，却尺幅万里，以动作起、以景语承、以情语结，开后世望江南闺情一体；其艺术之要，在于以极简的物事承载极长的等待，在于过尽千帆的重复中见绝望的累积，在于以景结情、不言愁而愁自溢，是花间词密丽含蓄风格在小令中的凝练呈现，亦见小令虽短而能纳长情之力。

Allusions

白蘋洲 (isle of white duckweed) — a conventional locus of parting and longing in southern poetry.

此词虽短，却句句接引古典。望江楼，本为登临望归之所，自《诗经》与汉乐府便有登楼望远的范式，唐人闺怨诗更以登楼写思妇；温庭筠独倚望江楼，正承这一登楼盼归的传统。千帆，暗用舟船代归人的意象，古乐府《西洲曲》与后人词章皆以舟帆写音书与归期，过尽千帆皆不是，是把舟帆的期待翻转成失望的累积。斜晖脉脉水悠悠，脉脉本出《古诗十九首》盈盈一水间，脉脉不得语，以水畔含情之态写夕光；悠悠本出《诗经》悠悠苍天及《楚辞》的悠长，写江水的无尽与等待的漫长。白蘋洲，白蘋为水中浮草，洲为分别之地，柳恽《江南曲》汀洲采白蘋，日落江南春，以白蘋洲写离别与相思，温庭筠肠断白蘋洲，正用其分别之地的故实。这些意象，或出《诗经》、或出汉乐府、或出六朝诗文，被温庭筠凝进二十七字，使一首小令获得悠长的传统回响，旧意象与新闺怨浑然如一。

Commentary

The poem withholds the lover entirely; absence is the subject. The closing 'heart breaks' lands because the preceding calm has been so patient.

此词为温庭筠闺怨小令的代表，向与《更漏子·玉炉香》并观，一写昼之望、一写夜之熬，同见花间闺怨之深。宋人词话论温词，多许其密丽，然独于此词许其疏淡，以为二十七字而尺幅万里；近人如王国维《人间词话》虽讥温词句秀而乏深境，亦不能不承认其小令开北宋先声之功。此词之妙，论者多在过尽千帆皆不是一句——以重复的失望写等待的折磨，是写望归最警策的一笔，后人每引以为盼归母题的巅峰。亦有学者指出，结以肠断白蘋洲，以景语收情语，将女子的痴望与失落融于无声的江天暮色，是花间含蓄一派的典型。全词虽短，却开后世望江南闺情一体，亦为花间词密丽含蓄风格的典范，对欧阳修、晏殊诸家小令影响深远。读此词，当于其疏淡字面下，听见那份从《诗经》一路传来的、中国女性望断江天的痴，以及温庭筠以最省笔墨写最无尽等待的本领，小令之小，原来正装得下千年。

Prosody

Form English explanation is being prepared.词·望江南（单调小令，二十七字，三平韵，温庭筠依白居易改制之调）

Rhyme English explanation is being prepared.押平水韵下平十一尤：楼、悠、洲，一韵到底，三韵相承，音色悠远回环，恰配江天暮色与无尽相思的基调。

Tone pattern English explanation is being prepared.望江南温庭筠体，句式为三五七七五：平仄仄，仄仄仄平平（韵）；仄仄平平平仄仄，平平仄仄仄平平（韵），平仄仄平平（韵）。本词梳洗罢（平仄仄），独倚望江楼（韵）；过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠（韵）；肠断白蘋洲（韵），正合其谱。

Reading note Short ci (小令), tune 'Wang Jiangnan'; irregular short lines mimic breath and pause, ending on an abrupt, aching single phrase.此词为《望江南》单调小令，仅二十七字，却尺幅万里，是词体短章抒情的高峰。其韵脚楼、悠、洲同属平水韵下平十一尤，一韵到底，尤韵发音悠远而回环，恰配江天暮色与无尽相思的语气，亦衬出小令特有的绵长余味。声调上，起句梳洗罢三字仄起，急促如一声轻叹；独倚望江楼五字舒展，立起倚楼之姿；过尽千帆皆不是七字以仄收，写尽失望之密；斜晖脉脉水悠悠七字转平，景舒而情长；肠断白蘋洲五字收束，戛然而止而痛未穷。句式三五七七五错落，短长相济，使二十七字既有动作的疾、又有景语的徐。温庭筠以最省的声律，写最无尽的等待，正见小令体性与花间含蓄风格的相得益彰。

Line by line

梳洗罢，独倚望江楼。

Her toilette done, alone she leans on the river-watching tower.

梳洗已毕，独自倚在望江楼头。

Toilette done, she leans alone on the river-watching tower.

起句以日常动作写盼归之急，是全词情绪的起点。梳洗罢，平平三字，却藏着时间的紧迫——她不是姗姗梳妆，而是梳洗一毕便去倚楼，可见望归之心早已压过了梳妆的从容，甚至这梳洗本身或许也只是为了去望那一眼。独倚望江楼，独字是全句的诗眼，写尽无人相伴、唯有江天与己相对的孤；倚字写出一种长久的、近乎凝固的姿态——不是站一会，是倚着、等着，把身体交给了望。望江楼这个地点，自汉魏登楼望远的传统而来，本就是思妇的标配，温庭筠只轻轻一点，便把一个人放进了千年母题里。这一起，不写愁而孤已透，不写望而望已切，为后面的千帆皆不是做好了最静的铺垫。

The opening writes the urgency of waiting through daily action, the emotional starting point of the ci. Toilette done: three plain characters holding the urgency of time - she does not dawdle at the mirror but leans on the tower the moment her toilette is done; the wish to watch for his return has already outrun the leisure of dressing, and perhaps even the dressing itself was only for that one look. Alone is the eye of the line: the loneliness of no companion, only river-sky and herself. Leaning writes a long, almost frozen posture - not standing a moment but leaning, waiting, giving her body to the watching. The river-watching tower, from the Han-Wei tradition of climbing towers to gaze afar, is the standard place of the longing wife; Wen Tingyun lightly names it and sets a woman into a thousand-year motif. This opening: no word of grief, yet loneliness through; no word of watching, yet watching urgent - the stillest preparation for not one of a thousand sails below.

过尽千帆皆不是，斜晖脉脉水悠悠。

A thousand sails pass, none the one; the slanting sun gazes tenderly, the waters flow on and on.

成千的帆过去了都不是他，斜阳脉脉江水悠悠。

A thousand sails pass by, and not one is his; the slanting sun lingers, the river flows on endlessly.

这是全词最警策的一联，也是写望归的千古绝唱。过尽千帆皆不是，以重复的失望写等待的折磨：每一片帆都是一个希望的升起与落下，千百次升起又千百次落空，皆不是他，把等待写成一种慢刀割心的过程。过尽二字，写时间之久、帆影之多，也写失望之彻底；皆不是三字，冷静得近乎残忍，却最真实地写出了盼而不得的常态。斜晖脉脉水悠悠，笔锋一转，从帆转到夕光与江水，脉脉写斜阳依依不舍，悠悠写江流无尽，景语中皆是痴望与失落——江水流不尽，她的等待也流不尽。这一联的妙，在前句以动写失望、后句以静写悠长，动静相生，把一种说不清的怅惘，化进了天边的光与脚下的水，不言愁而愁已满江天。

This is the ci's most incisive couplet, the eternal song of watching for return. A thousand sails pass by, and not one is his writes the torment of waiting through repeated disappointment: every sail is a hope rising and falling, a thousand risings and a thousand empty falls, not one is his - waiting written as a slow knife. A thousand sails pass writes the length of time, the multitude of sails, and the thoroughness of disappointment; not one is his is calm to the point of cruelty, yet most truly writes the norm of longing unfulfilled. The slanting sun lingers, the river flows on endlessly: the brush turns from sails to sunset and water; lingers writes the sun's reluctance, flows on endlessly the river's endlessness - in the scenery are all the痴 watching and the loss. The river flows on without end, and her waiting flows on without end. The couplet's art: the first writes disappointment through motion, the second the length of waiting through stillness; motion and stillness interweave, converting an indefinable wistfulness into the light at the horizon and the water at her feet - no word of grief, yet grief fills river and sky.

肠断白蘋洲。

Her heart breaks at the isle of white duckweed.

望断白蘋洲上，柔肠寸断。

Her heart breaks at the white-clipweed isle.

结句以情语收束，是全词最沉的一笔。白蘋洲，本为分别之地，柳恽《江南曲》以之写离别相思，温庭筠于此收束，等于把望归的终点拉回当初分别的原点——她望的，正是当年送他上船的那片洲渚，望断于此，柔肠寸断。肠断二字，把前面所有的独、所有的千帆皆不是、所有的脉脉悠悠，全部收进一声痛里，却仍以景语（白蘋洲）托住，不肯直白地哭。这一结的力道，在它不解释、不铺陈，只把地点一点、痛字一落，余味便漫过洲渚、漫过江水。二十七字到此戛然而止，而那份望断江天的痴，却长久地留在读者心里，正是小令以景结情、言有尽而意无穷的极致。

The closing line ends in emotional statement, the ci's deepest stroke. The white-clipweed isle was the place of parting; Liu Yun's Ballad of Jiangnan used it for parting and longing, and Wen's closing pulls the end of watching back to the origin of parting - the isle she watches is precisely the isle where she saw him off that year; watching it to the breaking point, her heart breaks. Heartbreaks gathers all the aloneness, all the not one sail, all the lingering and flowing into one cry of pain, yet still held by the scenery of the white-clipweed isle, refusing to weep outright. The closing's force lies in explaining nothing, elaborating nothing: one place named, one pain uttered, and the aftertaste spreads over the isle and the river. Twenty-seven characters stop short; yet the infatuation of gazing river and sky to the breaking point remains long in the reader's heart - the extreme of the short lyric closing in scenery, words ended, meaning unspent.

Study

Word focus

独 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 独是起句最重的一个字，也是全词孤意的源头。独倚望江楼，写她不是与人同倚，而是孤身一人、唯有江天与己相对的姿态。这个字的好处，在以一字立起整首词的氛围——有独，才有后面千帆皆不是的无人共望；有独，斜晖水悠悠才显得更冷清。独不是热闹里的偶尔落单，而是日复一日的、习以为常的孤，是思妇身份的本质。温庭筠把独轻轻安在倚之前，便把一个等待中的女性从人群中抽离出来，推到江楼的风里，让读者一眼看见她的孤单。一字之中，有姿态、有处境、有千年母题里所有望归女子的共同身影，是炼字见意、以少总多的典范。

过尽千帆皆不是 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 过尽千帆皆不是，是全词最警策的一句，也是写望归的巅峰之笔。过尽写帆影之稠、时间之长，千帆极言其多，皆不是则以一律的否定，把每一次希望的升起都按下去。这七个字（连标点）的妙处，在它以重复写绝望——不是一次失望，而是千百次的失望累积成一种必然的空；希望被一次次点燃又一次次熄灭，比一次性的失去更折磨人。温庭筠不写她如何哭、如何怨，只写帆过、不是、再过、还不是，让失望自己在重复中长成绝望。这种以量变质、以动写痛的笔法，使一句白白等待，有了千钧的重量，亦使望归这一母题在此句中达到了最凝练的表达，后人再也绕不开这七个字。

脉脉 / 悠悠 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 脉脉与悠悠，是承接句里一对写尽痴望与悠长的叠词，也是全词由失望转入怅惘的声情枢纽。脉脉本出《古诗十九首》盈盈一水间，脉脉不得语，写水畔含情之态；温庭筠以之写斜晖，把无情的夕光写得依依不舍，仿佛夕阳也陪着她望、也替她怅。悠悠写江水，本出《诗经》悠悠苍天，状其漫长无尽；此处江水悠悠，正是她等待的隐喻——水流不尽，望亦不尽。二字一写天光、一写水流，一近一远，把失望之后那种说不清、化不开的怅惘，化进天边的光与脚下的水。叠词本身带有咏叹的节奏，读来悠长回环，恰与不甘不愿、缠绵不去的相思同构，是温词善以丽字写深哀的典型一笔。